Adonis has had more influence in terms of innovation and modernity than any other contemporary Arab poet. Twice he has been a finalist for the Nobel Prize. For Adonis, poetry is a vision (ru'ya) a "leap outside of established concepts, a change in the order of things and in the way we look at them." His work often centers on the process of poetic creation. Selected fromAl-A'mal al Shi'riyya (The Complete Works, 3 volumes), the current book explores the great Syrian poet's oeuvre more than in any other previous collection in English.